School with Schizophernia

I'm in high school and lately my schizophrenic symptoms have been getting worse and have started interfering with my school work. My grades have dropped severely and I use to be a very good student.

I have been noticing that I am constantly hallucinating during classes and can't find anything that helps them. I can't seem to concentrate for long periods of time and I feel completely exhausted after a simple day of school.

Are there any programs who specialize with teens who have mental illness. I don't think I can even handle another semester of school. Any suggestions you guys can think of?

(this was posted in the school section before)

What meds are you on?

are you officially diagnosed by a psych or is this something that you yourself call schizophrenia. its just that you never mentioned meds

Do you have a pdoc pt therapist? Are you diagnosed and tale meds for this? If so, then you will be able to get help at school with classes amd homework. My daughter is diagnosed schizophrenia. She is now 14 and in regular school. They modify her grades for her so she does not fail amd stay back. She is in and out of the hospital because of her hallucinations in and out of school but is managing well with support.

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If you do have doctors, you may just need a med change. School is stressful and can make your psychosis act up.
(((hugs)))

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When I was young all those years ago, I was in a special program for people with mental illness. I have gone to many schools in my life, but now I graduated and I'm 30 going on 31 next month. It is because during this time in my life (school) I ended up in the hospital because my symptoms were so severe. After the hospital they thought there is no way i would be able to handle regular school anymore and because of the bullying in regular school which was one of the causes for my symptoms. The school meant for people with mental illness was depressing to tell you the truth. I don't want to bring you down. I don't know if they even have these kinds of schools in Canada. But what is so depressing about the one I was in was the fact they literally didn't let me have any friends, as it was against the rules there. They had a doctor at the school for therapy, I don't remember if they gave out meds or not. It was a long time ago. But you need a pdoc and meds if your symptoms are that bad. In these special schools, you must have a diagnosed condition to enter. I don't even know how common these special program schools are in the US either.

Here in upstate NY there are alternative schools but they are for kids with bad behavior. They tried to get us to send Bean there to be put in a special class. She is not a bad behaving kid! She is kind and loving with a bit of oddness! lol.
She would never be able to do sports or anything else with her peers so we insisted she stay at regular school.

Yes, she gets bullied a lot. But she has a couple of good friends who also have disabilities and they help each other. Teachers are aware of her illness and that helps a lot. She is exhausted after a day at school and goes to bed at 7:30 every school night.

She is in and out of the hospital but it is a good thing. She comes back with a med change and we just move on. School is a stressful thing for anyone but those with MI have it much harder and I cannot imagine going to school when you know you are not well.

We are here for you Eclipselightning. You are not alone.

I am diagnosed with psychotic disorder because they haven't decided if it is schizophrenia or bipolar. I have all the symptoms of schizophrenia though. I am on Seroquel and was on abilify

I have a psychiatrist but I don't see her often. They do know that I have psychosis though. thank you and I am glad to see your daughter is doing well. I hope the same goes for me

okay.
My Bean has that diagnosis. In some states, the diagnosis of 'schizophrenia" is not allowed by the health insurance until you hit a certain age. her pdoc and the docs at the hospital and everyone else involved writes down schizophrenia as her diagnosis. Just not in her official records yet.

It sounds like you need a tune up. Call your docs and get in to see them for an assessment of your meds.

have you talked to your parents about how you are feeling? That may be very helpful. They may be able to give you more support right now and help you through this.

Im sorry your feeling this way right now....

the thing is I recently just came off of abilify and restarted Seroquel and every 4 days I am increasing the Seroquel by 25mg. I have told my pdoc about my visual and auditory hallucinations but she doesn't seem to care. she just pushes them aside because she thinks they are just caused by anxiety. I'm thinking of trying to switch pdocs because mine is so crappy.

I have talked to my mom about how im doing but she doesn't know what to do because she doesn't understand it. She seems scared by my symptoms.

She is not scared in the way you think she is. She is scared for you. It is a scary thing as a mama to try to wrap our heads around what is happening to our baby. And we feel helpless not being able to fix it. How long has this been going on? years? months? She may just need to educate herself more. Or figure out how to handle it just as you have to. Give her time and she will know what to say and what to do.
Just keep communication open with her. She can be your best advocate.
Can she come with you to the docs tomorrow? Tell her exactly what is going on. If she is shy like I used to be, its hard to be assertive at first but soon she will be demanding that you get the help you need.
Sometimes pdocs dont take you seriously until there is someone else there to stick up for you.
Did seroquel work before?

Seroquel.
It takes a while to start working if I remember correctly.

Sounds like maybe changing meds may be causing psychosis too. Dropping one and slowly going to another. That may be why the pdoc seems not to care. Shee is waiting to see if it works. Still. Not a good situation. i would call and let her know whats going on.

What helped me the most in school was sitting down and talking to my teachers about it. I wasn't as open as I should have been until college. I didn't talk much with my parents about it but they let me stay home when symptoms got really bad and it's important to let your teachers know, especially when you are going through med changes. That's when I struggled the most, and most of my teachers really cared about me and helped working around my symptoms. It's good if you have a parent or doctor's note confirming your symptoms. I'd really encourage you to ask each one separately if they have time to talk. Most teacher's are good at listening. Something that you could talk to them about, if these things would help, is giving more time on tests for you, or letting you take it a different day. Special ed classes may help, since they are slower pace. If a teacher knows beforehand that you are having issues and feels they can trust you to be honest. I know it's hard for a teacher, wondering if a student is just making stuff up to get out of things, but when I was really open about all the struggles and that I didn't want to end up in special ed or with other students knowing, they were usually open to work with me. It's really hard to do anything when the hallucinations are overwhelming or when you are dizzy or shaking from med changes. Let them know that. Let them know when you are having a bad day. The doc might even be able to prescribe something for bad days. Xanax helps calm me down on days when the hallucinations get bad. I hope you can find some help.

Last light I talked to my mom again and she said that there is no way I have schizophrenia. She believes that all my symptoms are caused by me not wanting to talk about my sexual abuse. It seems as of she doesn't believe what is going on in my head and she is in denial.

The main thing I feel difficult with school is that I can't concentrate much. I feel like my mind is always active and to focus on one thing is too challenging for me. I also dissociate in class or I start becoming infatuated with my hallucinations.

My mom is kind of in denial and doesn't handle hearing about it well. My dad is much more level headed and can remain calm when talking to me about it. It's not comfortable for him though. I think it helps that it runs in his family so he has relatives on his side that have hallucinations. I am also not officially diagnosed schizophrenic, I think the latest official is "depression with psychotic features". Sometimes I feel like 'get it over with and label me schizo' but I am also thankful at times that they don't because I think you tend to get dismissed by some as dangerous or hopeless once that diagnoses is placed.

Ahh. This os what my daughter has done. Everyone is on board. Every teacher.

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Im so sorry. Schizophrenia or not. You are not feeling well at all. Maybe your dad will be the one instead of her and thats okay too. As long as they know how you are feeling. ((((hugs))))

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It was really difficult for me when I was a teen too. I wasn't very open, I knew I was abnormal but not to what extent and I was scared to tell adults because I didn't know how they would react and if they would even believe me. What helped me through tests and concentration was self injury but PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT. I almost died from it and almost died from trying to quit. It doesn't seem like it would be as addictive as it is and although I have eight years without cutting I miss it almost everyday so please do not consider it an option. I've heard that having a special rock or something you can rub can help some people focus. Just having more time on tests helped some because although focusing was hard it meant that losing focus wouldn't keep me from finishing. Do you have any ideas of what might help/work for you?

Funny you mention that. When my daughter is becoming psychotic and going down hill, she becomes infatuated with her hallucinations in school too. Cant sit still, disrupts the class, get a drink, bathroom......